McDermott pays damages to Boehner in 1996 phone-tape case

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott has paid more than $64,000 in damages to House Republican leader John Boehner -- the first payment in a decadelong dispute over an illegally taped telephone call involving Boehner and other GOP leaders.

The payment, which includes $50,000 in court-ordered punitive damages, $10,000 in statutory damages and $4,169 in interest, is the first of what could be more than $850,000 in fines and fees owed by McDermott, D-Wash.

That's how much Boehner, R-Ohio, says he has paid in legal fees over the course of the 10- year-old case, which stems from a December 1996 telephone call in which Republican leaders discussed an ethics case against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

The Supreme Court ruled last month that McDermott acted improperly in giving reporters access to an audio tape given to him by a Florida couple who had recorded the cell phone call on a police radio scanner. McDermott, at the time a senior member of the House ethics committee, leaked the tape to two newspapers, which published articles on the case in January 1997.

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/349641_mcdermott01.html

[gateley]

1. This is SO WRONG! McDermott did the RIGHT thing. He was essentially a

whistleblower - he doesn't deserve this. Fuck the Supreme Court.

[Pastiche423]

2. It's wrong, alright

but Jim is a Democrat. Not only that, but he is a great liberal Democrat.

:mad:

[TacticalPeek]

3. Wrong is the polite word.

It will be nice to grind the Rs into the dirt come November.

[TankLV]

4. but bush* gets a spot on Mount Rushmore...

yeah - McCermott EXPOSES GOP CORRUPTION AND CRIMINALITY and instead of getting a Presidential Medal of Honor, he gets this...

I think I'll campaign for the next Democratic President to give him a Medal of Honor FOR his actions in THIS...I know the repukes have done it for CRIMES, why can't a Democrat do it for the RIGHT THING!